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were "always ready to tell sympathetic journalists an

account of their suffering under the Serbian regime . . .

foreign observers failed to notice that, although the

Serbs were supposed to be the oppressors, they themselves

were departing from Kosovo, complaining about the destruc-

tion of property, the desecration of graves, and many

assaults and rapes."11

Enter Slobodan Milosevic

In April 1987, over 60,000 Serbs from Kosovo signed a

petition calling on the government in Belgrade to stop the

ethnic violence and intimidation aimed at them.12   In an

opportunistic attempt to raise his political profile, then

Serbian Communist Party president Slobodan Milosevic trav-

eled to Kosovo and played the nationalist card, proclaim-

ing to Serbs everywhere, "No one should dare beat you

again."13   By October 1987, federal riot police and army

troops were deployed in Kosovo following demonstrations by

thousands of Serbs protesting an alleged comment by a

Kosovar Albanian leader that "the incidents of [ethnic]

Albanians raping Serbian women could be reduced if more

Serbian women worked as prostitutes."14   In 1989, Belgrade

downgraded Kosovo's autonomy to its pre-1974 level, and

Milosevic was elected president of Serbia, with 65 percent

of the vote.  As Aleksa Djilas later noted in Foreign

Affairs, Milosevic "succeeded because he understood the

power of fear and knew how to use it for his own purpos-

es."15

Following the reduction of Kosovo's autonomy, Belgrade

imposed "emergency measures" in Kosovo, summarily dismiss-

ing thousands of ethnic Albanians from state-sector jobs.

No part of Kosovo's society was left untouched.  Even the

provincial theater in Pristina was placed under "emergency

management" and the theater manager removed by police

officers and replaced by a Serb.  The greatest changes,

however, occurred in education: The teaching of Albanian

history, literature, and language was reduced to a mini-

mum.  Also, ethnic Albanian students were forbidden from

enrolling in secondary school unless they could pass

Serbian literature and language examinations, which few

could do.16

In 1991, ethnic Albanians responded to their dimin-

ished autonomy by forming a shadow government, complete

with a president, a parliament, a tax system, and schools.

Shadow president Ibrahim Rugova has since worked for

Kosovo's independence through peaceful means, but a more

militant group has emerged.